Officials say a roadside bomb explosion has killed five police officers and two civilians in Turkey's southeast.

A police vehicle appears to have been the target for the attack on October 18 in the town Guroymak in Bitlis province. The civilian casualties were traveling in a truck behind.

One soldier meanwhile was wounded in a separate roadside bomb attack in the southeastern province of Mardin.

Security forces searched the area in search of the assailants, believed to be members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Attacks by suspected PKK guerrillas have become common in Turkey's eastern and southeastern provinces.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.